Gaming device manufacturers strive to make gaming devices that provide as much enjoyment and excitement as possible. Players are generally excited when they win and disappointed when they lose. Excitement is generally enhanced when the player wins by a narrow margin. For example, in a multiplayer poker game, a player can be very excited if their hand of four Aces beat a second player's hand of four Kings. Similarly, the player who had the hand of four Kings can be quite disappointed.
Many contemporary gaming devices such as slot machines randomly generate awards and other outcomes where a player can miss achieving a large award by a seemingly very narrow margin. Such gaming devices typically include a relatively low probability of obtaining the highest award, relatively medium probabilities of obtaining medium range awards and relatively higher probabilities of obtaining low range awards. These gaming devices also include probabilities of obtaining losses or no award at all. The awards and probabilities of obtaining the awards and the amount of the awards are used to calculate the average expected pay out percentage or paytable of these wagering gaming devices.
In certain wagering games where the probability of obtaining the highest award is relatively low, players can become particularly frustrated after seemingly nearly missing a large jackpot prize. For example, the probability of obtaining the highest award in a wide area progressive game may be one-in-thirty-million where the award is $1,000,000 or more. In this situation, achieving a near miss combination such as missing the highest award by one symbol or symbol position could be very disappointing to a player because the outcome seems so close to the outcome for achieving such a large award. The player may also be frustrated because the player may believe that the event is unlikely to repeat itself. In general, a near miss outcome can be in many different forms such as by not achieving a winning combination, by missing one symbol or symbol position, having a symbol out of position, missing by one card, or missing by one number, etc.
In one example, a gaming device includes a traditional reel slot game having a designated number of reels, and a plurality of symbols on each reel. In operation, upon a wager by a player, the gaming device causes the reels to spin. The reels stop spinning to indicate a winning or losing combination of the symbols on the reels. In one example of a near miss, a gold bar is generated on a payline for each of the first two reels, but the gold bar is generated just above the payline for the third reel. In this example, the player missed achieving the highest award because the third and final symbol required for the jackpot award (i.e., the award associated with three adjacent gold bar symbols generated on the same payline) occurred from the player's perspective only one physical reel stop position away from the payline. It should be appreciated that, the calculation for the final position of the symbols can be calculated in any suitable manner such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,448,419 to Telnaes.
Several games have been developed that allow displayed symbols to change position to change a near miss outcome into a winning outcome. These methods are capable of producing more winning combinations for the player. For example, certain slot games have nudge symbols that have an indicator (such as an arrow) pointing up or down. When a nudge symbol pointing down occurs above the payline, the reel rotates and the symbol automatically moves down. When a nudge symbol pointing up occurs below the payline, the reel rotates and the symbol automatically moves up. The nudge symbols do not discriminate between a near miss combination of symbols and any other combination of symbols. A nudge symbol thus changes the position of the symbol regardless of whether or not it results in a winning combination of symbols. Therefore, the nudge symbol may change a losing symbol combination of symbols into a winning symbol combination, but it does not guarantee a win because it may change a losing symbol combination into another losing symbol combination. Typically, nudge symbols have not been used for winning the largest top award or jackpot. Moreover, if a nudge symbol is provided for a large award, the large award can occur much more frequently and this can change the paytable dramatically, which is generally undesirable.
A need therefore exists to provide a gaming device and method which addresses the situation where a player achieves a near miss of a large award such as a jackpot.